Arsenel's problems this season

evilhomer

So Arsenal find themselves in 8th place with
4 wins
1 draw
3 losses which equates to 13 points.

So for the last few seasons people have being saying how would arsenal cope with a few injuries to big players! It hadn't really happened until this season.
Now when you look at the players that are missing versus who has to replace them

Ashley Cole -> Gael Clichy (no comparison really)
Sol Cambell -> Philippe Senderos (Not too bad)
Gilberto -> Mathieu Flamini (Not ready yet)
Thierry Henry -> Jose Reyes (Promised a lot but doesn't seem to have confidence)

When you add to this the loss of Viera in the summer it highlights the frailty of the Arsenal squad.


If you look at teams like Man Utd

Gary Neville -> Bardsley (Seems to be adapting well)
Gabriel Heinze -> John O' Sea (Doing a solid job)
Roy Keane -> Alan Smith (Adapting well)

Some might say that they are not as big players for Utd as some of Arsenels missing players.
But If you look at last year for Utd they had a period without Keane, Van Nistelrooy, Saha and Rio Ferdinand. Yet they still managed to stay in the top 4 teams.

I think that Arsene Wenger has done a superb job with Arsenel but really should have spent some money on a quality squad.

I would like to hear other people's opinions on this.

KdjaCL

Arsene is a superb manager and i reckon its a transitional period but i wouldnt worry, every other time they have done under his management they have come back better and stronger and near perfect in a footballing sense. But i think this may have some reason to do with lack of spending. But it will be worth it from the 1st home game.


kdjac

Mossy Monk

evilhomer wrote:

Yet they still managed to stay in the top 4 teams

you talk as if it is the end of the season already

Royale with Cheese

To be honest I wouldn't look too much into it. Yes they're not playing well at the moment but they were unlucky to lose to West Brom. Kirkland played a blinder and it took a great goal to beat Lehmann (well for the second time). I don't think they're playing as badly as their league position suggests but Wenger's decision not to bring in more players over the Summer has to be questioned.

Irish Gunner

The problem we have is the lack of depth

AW has decided to blood the youngsters this year and I agree with this policy. However we cannot compare the likes of Quincy, Luipoli, Flamini and Cesc to that of Henry and Vieira as they are still young
I still think that we should have bought more experienced players in and with Cesc there is no competition and thats not good. We spend to much time in the summer trying to lure Baptista and maybe Robinho and there was no back up plans. Surprised we did not sing Jenas
We have been playing good but Kirland had a blinder on Sat and we still need to sort out the defencse. It looks better when Sol is there
The Season is still young but we seem to be comparing this Arsenal with the Unbeaten Arsenal and they are not the same
Lets put it this way we can only go up

Royale with Cheese

Just a few more words to deter anybody who wants to talk about that plan b rubbish. 5 of Arsenal's 11 league goals this season have been scored by centre backs, from set pieces. It seems there is a plan b, unfortunately it's plan a that's not working this time.

Jivin Turkey

If Kirkland hadn't been MOTM against them on Saturday they would have won and only been two points off second and just a point off United. It's hardly a crisis.

Incidentally didn't Maik Taylor play the game of his life against them in the last league game?

Having the most influential player in the league missing from their team hardly helps their cause either.

I still expect Arsenal to be Chelsea's closest challengers this year.

The Muppet

Jivin Turkey wrote:

If Kirkland hadn't been MOTM against them on Saturday they would have won and only been two points off second and just a point off United. It's hardly a crisis.

Incidentally didn't Maik Taylor play the game of his life against them in the last league game?

Having the most influential player in the league missing from their team hardly helps their cause either.

I still expect Arsenal to be Chelsea's closest challengers this year.

"If" being the most telling word in that post. Even "If " they had won they would still be in third place 11 points behind the leaders, as it stands they are 14.

As for having the most influential player missing ,well that just confirms how reliant Arsenal are on Henry. What's going to happen if he moves on next summer as expected?

I don't believe it's all down to Henrys absence, They have sold a number of important players and not replaced them properly yet. I believe Wenger thinks that he has the young players to come through to adequetly replace Edu, Viera, etc but that remains to be seen.

You can only judge by performances and as it stands it looks like the shift in power that Gunner fans were boasting about two seasons ago was very short lived.

Pepe LeFrits

Arsenal's problems this season, primarily have been related to: Henry, Campbell, Vieira, Pires, Bergkamp.

Necronomicon

Henry highlighted how much they missed him tonight.

evilhomer

Mossy Monk wrote:

you talk as if it is the end of the season already

I was commenting more on the lack of strength in depth of the squad then their current league position.

Roddy23

Just for the record who is this Arsenel team

Arsenel's problems this season

Roddy23

Although Henry is back, our injury problems look set to continue. It appears Reyes has broken a rib in tonight's game. Anyone know how long that could keep him out for?

Jivin Turkey

The Muppet wrote:

"If" being the most telling word in that post. Even "If " they had won they would still be in third place 11 points behind the leaders, as it stands they are 14.

Of course but Chelsea have raised the bar for the whole league, and as it stands they are only four points off their other main rival. Hardly a crisis.

The Muppet wrote:

As for having the most influential player missing ,well that just confirms how reliant Arsenal are on Henry. What's going to happen if he moves on next summer as expected?

Every club are reliant on their best players, in Arsenal's case their best player is the most influential in the league by some distance.

And if I had a penny for every time Henry and Vieira were to leave Arsenal "next Summer as expected" I'd be a rich man. I've only been let down once.

The Muppet wrote:

I don't believe it's all down to Henrys absence, They have sold a number of important players and not replaced them properly yet. I believe Wenger thinks that he has the young players to come through to adequetly replace Edu, Viera, etc but that remains to be seen.

He has sold Edu and Vieira, no one else who would be considered first team material. Flamini and Fabregas showed last year that they have what it takes to adequately replace them respectively.

The Muppet wrote:

You can only judge by performances and as it stands it looks like the shift in power that Gunner fans were boasting about two seasons ago was very short lived.

True, but only because of the uncontrolable circumstances that money can buy you anything in football.

I thought I read Wenger say that Europe was his priority this year, maybe he knows he can't compete with Chelsea ATM? I still wouldn't be overly concerned at their start to the season if I were an Arsenal fan.

evilhomer

Jivin Turkey wrote:

Every club are reliant on their best players, in Arsenal's case their best player is the most influential in the league by some distance.

Not as reliant as Arsenal are on Henry. Manchester United spent almost the entire season last year without their best goal scorer, still scored goals though.

Jivin Turkey wrote:

And if I had a penny for every time Henry and Vieira were to leave Arsenal "next Summer as expected" I'd be a rich man. I've only been let down once.

You can only be let down twice! your halfway there!

Jivin Turkey wrote:

He has sold Edu and Vieira, no one else who would be considered first team material. Flamini and Fabregas showed last year that they have what it takes to adequately replace them respectively.

Flamini and Fabregas are great players, but still to young to play an entire season at such a high level. They played their part last season when they were called upon but Viera was there for a good portion of the season.

Jivin Turkey wrote:

True, but only because of the uncontrolable circumstances that money can buy you anything in football.

It's not all about the money. Man Utd have spent big for years and got the same criticism. They have spent over 100 million on players in the last three years. hasn't won them anything.
Liverpool too have spent big as have Spurs.

evilhomer

Roddy23 wrote:

Just for the record who is this Arsenel team

I apologise for my typo :P

Necronomicon

evilhomer wrote:

Flamini and Fabregas are great players, but still to young to play an entire season at such a high level. They played their part last season when they were called upon but Viera was there for a good portion of the season.

I don't think they're too young to play an entire season at this level, the problem is what happens if they get injured. Flamini and Fabregas are very good players, but Arsenal are still thin in that area.

Royale with Cheese

The centre of midfield is the one area I could just not agree with Wenger's policy of only brining in new players if they are quality, and not just for the sake of bringing in new players. How many premiership teams have 3 centre mids? 2 of them are kids. He let's one of the best centre midfielders in the world leave, and another excellent and often underrated one (Edu) leave the club and brings in nobody. Forget the fact that he wants to blood youngsters and he believes Fabregas and Flamini are good enough, the team needs another centre mid, an experienced one. I think Dacourt would have been a good player to get as he has experience, but also wouldn't keep the youngsters out of the team indefinitely. I would be suprised if another centre mid does not arrive in January.